What the War Stole
by Sable Supernova
Summary: The First Wizarding War was full of heartache and sorrow; the darkest of days. James, Sirius, Marlene... all of the beloved allies knew the charcoal of despair, even as beacons of hope shone on their horizons. They were the perpetrators as much as they were the victims; the tragedies of a war they chose to fight in. Collection.
1. Sleepless

**Sleepless**

Finding himself unable to sleep, James headed downstairs, into the Gryffindor Common Room, and sat in the deep windowsill. He looked out at the waxing moon, reminded himself that the Full Moon wasn't far away, and sighed. He should be happy, he knew. Christmas was around the corner; he could finally call Lily his girlfriend and exams were ages away.

But there was a growing sense of dread settling in his heart, a nervous tension building up inside of him like a tin kettle put on to boil, beginning to whistle. He didn't know what to make of it.

He knew that if he was honest with himself, if he confronted his fears and his desire to act, he knew exactly what it was.

It was the reason he poured over the Daily Prophet every morning, breathing in every word, oblivious to the breakfast chatter. It was why he struck up conversation with McGonagall in detentions and scrutinized Dumbledore's every word.

If James was honest, truly honest, he was afraid of the future he was beginning to build. He didn't know what it would hold.

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 **Written for the Ultimate Chocolate Frog Cards Challenge, for James Potter – Write about James Potter. 185 words.**

 **This is a series of nine short pieces about nine different characters during the First Wizarding War. They do follow a chronology, but can be read separately. I'll be publishing them between now and Wednesday, 30th December.**


	2. Selfless

**Selfless**

Marlene woke up with a bottomless pit for a stomach, a deep ache of nothingness. She couldn't remember what she dreamed of, but she tried to shake the nervous energy away. She carried on as usual, showering, dressing, sitting at the dressing table in the dormitory and combing out her long, dark locks.

She looked good today, she decided. Her hair was shiny, and falling just the way she liked it. Her eyes looked bright and alert. Maybe she'd even catch Sirius' eye today.

Almost as soon as she left the emptiness behind with the last breath of sleepiness, it came back, stronger than ever, bringing tears to her eyes.

The world was at war. People were dying. Hurt and suffering surrounded the Wizarding World. And here she was, combing her hair, thinking she looked pretty today.

It was what she'd always done, how she'd always been, but all of a sudden, it didn't feel right. It made her feel sick.

In the midst of all the darkness, and the confusion, Marlene understood with a deep sadness. She wasn't sure she knew how to be herself any more, or if she was even that same girl.

Maybe war changed everyone.

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 **Written for the Ultimate Chocolate Frog Cards Challenge, for Marlene McKinnon – Write about Marlene McKinnon. 199 words.**


	3. Senseless

**Senseless**

Waking up in the Hospital Wing, the memories returned slowly, as if they knew the shock they would bring if they weren't gentle.

She remembered the burning, sizzling, blinding white pain. She remembered the sound, the crunching sound, the sickening snaps. She looked down at her legs, tears already forming in her eyes, because she knew. She already knew.

 _Wands were aimed at her through the darkness. Two dark voices shouted, but she couldn't make out words. Her heart bounced painfully against her ribcage, drowning out the sounds of her own panicked sobs._

She wiggled her toes on her right leg. A sense of relief washed over her when she saw them move, despite the pain the movement caused. She saw the bright red skin, the patterns that danced, haphazardly across the shining surface. More of a tango than a ballet.

 _Fire. Fire was suddenly all around her, bright orange light and yellow licks upon her flesh. She couldn't move. Frozen in place, all she could do was watch as they advanced, until the pain was too much._

She wondered if it was all her own fault. If she had managed to make the wrong friends, the wrong enemies. If she really did have the wrong parents. That's what they thought, wasn't it? What if it was true? Tears spilled down her porcelain cheeks as she let the guilt wash over her, just for a second, before she pushed it away, more determined than ever that she'd never done anything wrong.

 _She couldn't hear her own screams, and she wondered if anyone could. She couldn't see anything but flames; she couldn't feel anything but the searing heat, the boiling of blood. She could taste her own scorching flesh._

She sat up on her elbows, looking at both of her legs, fascinated for a moment by the pictures and patterns in the mottled pattern, wishing she could paint it. Maybe one day, she would.

 _Suddenly, she was writhing in a new kind of pain, electric, at the very end of every nerve. She knew this pain that mixed so brightly with the burn. Crucio. As if the fire wasn't' enough, as if it wasn't already a horrible way to die. Die. Dying. It suddenly hit her that she was dying._

She tried to wriggle the toes in her left leg, and fell back to the pillows deflated, sobs breaking from her heart-wrenched chest. Nothing. Her left leg was nothing more than a stump, useless, lifeless. Hadn't they already done enough?

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 **Written for the Ultimate Chocolate Frog Cards Challenge, for Mary McDonald – Write about one of Muciber and Avery's pranks on Mary. 418 words.**


	4. Futureless

**Futureless**

Alice knew how it worked. She'd read the books, spoken to the nurse: she'd done everything she needed to do. Frank was out at work still. She had the house to herself for at least half an hour. All the same, she'd locked the bathroom door, just in case. It was a potion, was all. Just a simple, harmless potion that would pass straight through her. Apparently, it even tasted nice, sweet, like marshmallows.

And yet, as she held the little vial, her hands shook. She brushed one through her short brown hair, finding her forehead damp with sweat. She was afraid, but not of the potion.

She was afraid of the future; the life that her and Frank have started together, unplanned. She's scared of the war, and all the horrors it's already brought. She's scared of what might be around the next corner, yet unseen but looming ever closer.

Steeling herself, drawing her Gryffindor courage tighter like a comfort blanket, she uncorked the bottle and downed the contents. Almost immediately, the urge to use the toilet crept upon her, and she struggled with the toilet lid and the buttons on her jeans at the same time, desperate. At least this bit was easy – she didn't have a choice.

The deed done, all that was left was too look. If it was normal, she was normal. If it wasn't… she couldn't bring herself to finish the thought.

She closed her eyes as she separated her knees, tilted her head down. All she needed to do was open her eyes and she'd know. It would all be over, or it would all begin.

She cracked one eye open for a fraction of a second, but it was enough. The waves of panic began to wash over her. She wished Frank was here, with her, right now. That she wouldn't have to tell him. That he would already know.

The water was blue. The future suddenly became a little clearer as she learned part of what it had in store. At the same time, the future suddenly became more uncertain.

She tried to calm down with one little, simple thought, repeated on fast-forward in the recesses of her mind. _It's only a baby._

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 **Written for the Ultimate Chocolate Frog Cards Challenge, for Alice Longbottom – Write about Alice Longbottom. 372 words.**


	5. Lightless

**Lightless**

Sirius clutched the note with a racing, empty heart. He didn't know what to think, what to feel. Hope and love, anger and sadness, all welled up inside him like a pauper's stew, the kind of meal no one choses to eat, though many know its taste.

Questions jumped to attention in his mind, but he knew he'd never ask them. It was too late. Why didn't she tell him? Why didn't he know? Who else knew? How did it even happen in the first place?

The worst part was the hope that had reared its head, the longing and optimism. The world had seemed bleak, darkness surrounded him everywhere he turned. Nothing was as it seemed. But there it was, a beacon of light he never knew he'd been looking for. A constant and a promise.

Ripped away as soon as it had been granted.

 _S,_

 _I was pregnant. I lost it. I'm sorry. I know words will never be enough now it's too late._

 _M_

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 **Written for the Ultimate Chocolate Frog Cards Challenge, for Alexia Walkin Black – Write about the death of a child. 167 words.**


	6. Saviourless

**Saviourless**

Frank silently performed the incantation and set his silvery protector out into the darkness of his living room, feeling comforted by the soft light, and the happy memory needed to summon it.

The war was right on top of them, beneath them and all around. They'd put themselves in the middle of it, because they were young, and brave, and reckless. Like all wonderful and disastrous courses of action, it felt like the right thing to do at the time.

But they'd been thinking of the now of the past, not the future of now. Now, there was a baby, a boy, who was too young to be in the middle of it, but too young to choose. Frank was scared. There was a life beginning right here in this house, a happy, comfortable life.

And it was so fragile. So easily knocked, fractured, broken by the world around them.

The Patronus soothed him. A visualisation of the magic he carried in his bones that would keep them safe. The silver guardian, only useful against one of their many foes, had a constant presence, alert and rigid, watching the night. A sentinel on a tower. The spell grew weak; the light faded. Frank was left alone again, in the dark.

He was reminded, quite starkly, that even with the silver creature beside him, it was only ever him.

He was all that stood between his family and their enemies.

All he could do was hope that he couldn't be broken.

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 **Written for the Ultimate Chocolate Frog Cards Challenge, for Andros the Invincible – Include a Patronus in your story, of someone who isn't a main character of the novels. 250 words.**


	7. Helpless

**Helpless**

She watched the news every evening, at six o'clock sharp. James laughed at her, calling it one of Lily's oddities, but she didn't let that phase her. It wasn't just a silly little habit, not anymore.

An urgency overtook her in the late afternoon, every day, and she found herself watching the clock. She'd remember being a little girl, curling up on her father's lap as the news reporter talked about things she didn't understand and her stomach rumbled, waiting for dinner. The news was a comfort, a constant. She remembered the longing for that familiar that had risen in her while she was at school, without a television to calm her.

News from the Wizarding World was rare and patchy, translated from reality, from the words of the Daily Prophet's writers, into softer language by her friends, who didn't want her worrying. She understood. But long summers in a muggle household had taught Lily a thing or two – how to spot the magical in the mundane. She knew how to translate the host's words into the truth they didn't understand, how to spot the attacks in the strange disappearances, the brewing plans in the tense unknowns. She read between the lines, and knew the sun was shrinking below the horizon for the Wizarding World, like a never-ending Arctic winter.

She knew what her friends wouldn't say. She knew why. She sought it out and felt helpless.

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 **Written for the Ultimate Chocolate Frog Cards Challenge, for Josephina Flint – Write about Muggle Technology in the Wizarding World. 237 words**


	8. Honourless

**Honourless**

He'd been told it was up to him, his choice, but he didn't particularly feel like he had one. All those times James and Sirius had pulled him up by his bootstraps at school hadn't gone unnoticed. He'd always felt like the weak link, and now the truth was painfully obvious.

He was a lone rat, backed into a corner by a pack of rabid dogs, scared of making an escape.

If he did what they wanted, he'd be rewarded. If he didn't, he'd suffer. The requests started small, with little at stake for either sad. Just the odd bit of information, nothing that mattered. But they changed the rules. Suddenly lives were at stake.

His life was at stake.

He told himself Lily and James would be fine. They were the best duellers he knew; they were always ready. Voldemort was just a man, and they'd bested him before.

He knew what it meant to say no. He knew what they'd take from him. What they'd already taken from him, when Mary lay crumpled in a heap on the battlefield. He didn't want that to be him.

He didn't want that to be anyone. Not anymore, too many lives had been lost already.

Voldemort would take this mission himself, Peter knew. The two brightest stars in the Order of the Phoenix, ready to burst up from the ashes of their lives. He was giving them their best chance to survive intact.

That was what he told himself.

A deep, dark part of him knew it was a lie, a fairytale invented to help him sleep soundly through the darkest of nights.

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 **Written for the Ultimate Chocolate Frog Cards Challenge, for Herman Wintringham – Write about a character and their role during any Wizarding War. 272 words.**


	9. Loveless

**Loveless**

The evidence was incriminating, Remus knew. The darkness took over his heart the moment he learned what had happened, it's beating red turned to charcoal black. The memories still boiled like acid beneath his skin, setting his nerves on edge. James and Lily had been betrayed. They all had.

He still remembered Sirius, a bright young star with an aristocratic jaw, sleek dark hair and a mischievous glint in his eye. Back when he was good.

He wondered when it had all gone wrong. He spent years wondering. Had he never been quite what he seemed, what he made himself out to be? Had he pushed him too far, too many times? Had the man he loved ever really existed?

That last one always caught in his throat like the smell of nicotine on a young Sirius' Firewhiskey breath. Remus remembered building his foundations with Sirius, back when they were young. He remembered laying the concrete, dreaming of the house they'd build on top of it.

If only he'd known then how easily concrete could crumble under the weight of a thousand lies.

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 **Written for the Ultimate Chocolate Frog Cards Challenge, for Marietta Edgecombe – prompts: betray, boil, memory, incriminate. 183 words.**


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